


De-pump

by bonehandledknife (ladywinter), Primarybufferpanel (ArwenLune)



Series: The Mountains Are The Same [33]
Category: Mad Max Series (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Internalised Racism, Joe Was Literally Toxic, Warboys dealing with a post-Joe world, internalised sexism, the citadel used to be a messed up place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-02
Updated: 2015-12-02
Packaged: 2018-05-04 13:09:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5335289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ladywinter/pseuds/bonehandledknife, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArwenLune/pseuds/Primarybufferpanel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>De-pump: to rest, recover, and flush away the ‘pump’ (restricted blood flow "old blood" coupled with built-up metabolic toxins/waste)</i>
</p><p> </p><p>Toast heard the noise of warboys rummaging around in one of the little side alcoves in the Infirmary, and yanked open the door. If they were in here messing stuff up, or even trading paint—</p><p>"Hey!" she said sharply. "What the hell are you doing?"</p><p>Two of Furiosa's warboys were looking at her with large, startled eyes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	De-pump

They found diagrams like none they’ve seen before, made bodies look more machine than they’d ever thought possible, and wordage in wordburgers in walls of text. It was all more letters than they’ve ever seen in one place before. Kompass and Austeyr could read a little, but that didn't help all that much when they came across four and five syllable words that didn’t even look like any word they’ve ever spoken, or even words they had no trouble with but were put together in bewildering ways.

“What in the world is a ‘University’ of Massa…’Massachusetts’?”

“Or a ‘Neu-rotox-icol-ogy’?”

Kompass squinted at the yellowed pages and tried to guess at words past the various stains and age-marks.

"We could bring this to the Boss, see what she says?"

Four days since the siege, and Furiosa continued to stay in bed. She didn't even sleep so much anymore, just.. laid there.

They'd looked to Ace for how to handle this, but when he wasn't busy assembling his new crew or trying to keep things running, he just sat with her quietly, not bothering tryin' to cheer her up at all. He'd talked to Miss Gale, so maybe that's what he'd been told to do? Ace even seemingly ignored her except for how he was always touching her in some way. Her shoulder against his leg, or his hand absently petting her hair. It didn't seem to make her any better, but she did press into his touch.  

Maybe a problem to help fix would get her interested? The Boss did always like fixing things.

 

* * *

 

"This is about lead," Furiosa said slowly, looking over the papers they'd brought her. She seemed to be doing everything as if it took more effort lately, as if she were moving through motor oil instead of air. But at least she seemed to take some small interest instead of none.

"Yeah. Did you know lead was bad for people, Boss?"

"N-no…" she frowned at the paper, looking uncomfortable.

"I feel like I should… should have known though," she finally added, hunching in on herself.  

Kompass hummed, trying to make sense of that, but only glanced at her a bit before simultaneous frustration of not knowing what was ailing her and not understanding the wordburgers made him feel overwhelmed and kind of worked up about it.

“Never liked the taste of water from down there,” she said.

He’d thought it tasted sweeter and kind of liked it, but hummed in support. The water up here tasted more coppery, like blood.

"Here's a reference to a report about water addiction. Did you bring that with you?"

They leafed through the papers. They'd mostly brought the diagrams, because those looked most logical to them.

"Is that related?"

"I think… I think so…" she sighed, looking at her paper. "Says here that he researched dosage. That's probably as much direct proof as there is."

Austeyr and Kompass looked at each other and then got up, going in search of more papers.

“We’ll be right back.” Kompass promised.

“Rachet, ah, keep an eye out?” Austeyr asked.

The healing war boy just grinned briefly, waving a wrench, before going back to his pile of scrap. Furiosa simply moved a pillow to lay her chin on so that she could just quietly watch him work, making no move towards the tools herself and falling still again.

It’d made something in Austeyr's gut twist; the parts Rachet was working on was the skeleton of Furiosa’s arm that’d been retrieved from the canyon. It needed all new wiring to work again, and two of the fingers had been crushed. She was usually very invested in keeping it functional, or in having some replacement, and for her to stare down at the prosthetic with such conflict unsettled Austeyr. He hurried Kompass out the door to find what they needed and return quick.

 

* * *

 

Toast heard the noise of warboys rummaging around in one of the little side alcoves in the Infirmary, and yanked open the door. If they were in here messing stuff up, or even trading paint—

"Hey!" she said sharply. "What the hell are you doing?"

Two of Furiosa's warboys were looking at her with large, startled eyes before she even really registered they had been pulling binders and books off the shelves and looking at them.

"Tribune Toast," said the one that was Furiosa's new Ace. Kompass.

They both looked uneasy, like she'd caught them at something they weren't supposed to be doing. Which was probably exactly what was happening.

"What the hell are you doing? You're not supposed to mess with this stuff. They are valuable references, not something to wipe your ass with!"

"What?! We'd _never—_ " Kompass closed his mouth with a click, and she could see him fume, as if she'd gravely insulted him.

Maybe she had? She didn't think Warboys could even read, but the way they were looking at the papers made her suddenly doubt that. She noticed their hands looked clean, as if they'd washed them specially for doing this. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, not wanting to insult them further and escalate this.

She hadn't seen Warboys show any interest in books before, and she found herself wanting to know why they would be here in the Infirmary's little library. What was here was only of interest to Gale and Feng and the new Infirmary crew. Toast sometimes swung by, trying to cross-reference books here with the piles that had been in the Vault with Miss Giddy, which she’d been trying to work into some semblance of order when she had a spare moment.

If they could read - if they had an _interest_ in reading - she ought to encourage it. Even if she didn't exactly relish interacting with them.

“What are you looking for?”

They glanced at each other and the shorter one carefully placed his binder back on a shelf but Austeyr, that chatty one that mostly spoke for the crew at council now, he turned his papers around and pointed at a line near the end. “D’you think there’s something about, um, dosage? Or about this bit?”

Toast glanced up at him and narrowed her eyes, but he seemed earnest. When she looked at what he’d pointed to, it seemed somewhat familiar. _Water Addiction_. She remembered a short, handwritten reference text that’d initially gave her the thought that they should have records of what wordburgers were in the infirmary collection versus in the general collection of texts from the vault.

"Yes, I've—" she frowned up at the tallest shelf, the one where the fragile and handwritten texts were kept. Both warboys backed away to give her space as she stepped over the threshold into the little room and climbed onto the wobbly little desk so she could reach up.

She didn't notice the hovering hands behind her back until she made a triumphant sound and turned around with the text, and they hurriedly pulled away their hands, looking a little sheepish as she jumped down.

_Huh._

She shook her head to dismiss the confusing moment and focused on the text. It was a sheaf of handwritten notes titled with a scrawled _Leaded Water, Correct Dosage notes._ She showed it to the warboys, and it took a long moment for them to read the first page, lips moving.

"So it's true," Austeyr said quietly. "Correct dosage _..._ of _lead_ . It was on purpose. And he tested it on war boys. On _pups_."

Kompass's face was a blank as he stared at the paper, his fists clenched. “ ‘ _Joe said to decrease it so ‘boys peak at 27_ ’ , he even gave the Mechanic a _time_ he’d rather have us break down by.”

Toast looked herself then, and from what she’d quickly read, even just that page was damning. Knowing how Joe used people it didn’t really surprise her. It was just one more thing to be mad at Joe for.

“I don’t want to believe it but—” the taller war boy leaned heavily against a wall, “But there’s no reason why this would be faked.”

“Mechanic was always in Joe’s favor, his things were always secure.” Kompass agreed, fists whitened and shaking, “We knew that whole thing with. With the Boss and the breeders was festy, but I didn’t think Joe was so completely _rust_ all the way through.”

Toast kept watching the stocky war boy carefully, watching his fists and preparing to defend. So she was completely unprepared for when Austeyr suddenly roared and slammed his fist against the wall he was leaning on, leaving a red smear

“ _Hey!_ ” Kompass yelled and moved forward but he wasn’t fast enough to catch the other war boy’s fist in time. He caught Austeyr around the waist, shouting and pulling him back as Toast scrambled out of their way.

“Was _everything_ he gave us poison?!” Austery shouted back, eyes bright, “Was _everything_ he made us into _diseased_ , and tumor’ed?”

Toast was unimpressed, “It’s just water, you can switch over—”

“It’s not _just_ water. It’s _growing up_ on the water, and his words,” Austeyr interrupted, “It’s drinking it because it’s sweet. Believing it was a special gift because we were his favoured warboys. You weren’t there when Joe first gave us the pipes, when he made his speeches about the honour he was doing us—”

"You think he didn't tell us what honour he was doing us while he hurt us? How glad we should be of his attention? While he raped us and told us it was _treasuring_? You think he didn't feed us poison? All his ‘wives’ heard his speeches too.” Toast shot back, “He spoke to us about how good he was to you, to all of us.”

“You weren’t in the _barracks_ ,” Austeyr insisted, “You had a closer view, fine, but he didn’t speak of lead, called it special water, and you weren’t there when we drank his words up. When it’s the only way out of the wastes, when you think that to be like him was to be _everything_ , the only way to have your life mean anything, to have breeders like him, be strong like him, talk like him, pale like him—”

Toast couldn’t stand to hear Joe praised so much. She thought about Cheedo, who'd never know anything else than to aspire to be Joe's wife, and hadn't known how to imagine something better.

When they were in the Vault Miss Giddy always challenged them, always pushed them, and she realized she had to be Miss Giddy in this moment, that she couldn’t let this slide, “There’s _nothing_ to him that can’t be found elsewhere and better! Women aren’t to be ‘had’, and strength isn’t everything, nor talking, nor being _white_.”

“ _That’s my point!_ ” The war boy slumped in Kompass’ hold, staring at her defeatedly, “Even, I mean, the Boss, Furiosa, she.” He gestured at his own wrist, where the clay dust had been washed off, “She’s been saying my color is shine. _But I don’t know how to believe her_.”

They all breathed quietly for a moment as the echoes of his shout died off.

“I try to listen, but I don’t know how to _feel_ it.” Austeyr finished quietly. "They say we're to go without paint and I—"

“...do you think mine is shine?” Toast asked carefully, after a pause as Kompass’ hold tightened into something resembling a hug.

Austeyr shrugged, not meeting her eyes, “Joe picked you. And it’s better than...” _than his_ , she finished in her thoughts during his silence.

She closed her eyes for a moment to command herself, and then asked, “Do you think any of us Tribunes are unable to heal from Joe’s poison? Or Furiosa? Do you think none of us can make something of ourselves apart from what Joe meant us to be?”

“But you’re _women_ , doesn’t it—”

“We heal because we have to. To survive in this Wasteland.” Toast shook her head, “There’s no room for mediocre women. We learned how to see poison, to survive; because that’s the first step, seeing it. But none of us, _none of us_ , has to be what Joe’s wanted to make us into. Not his wives. Not his war boys.”

She said this, realizing that she felt relatively safe, here, with these men all but cracked open in front of her. Wondered if the whole Citadel could feel this way. She watched as the two digested her words, looking at each other and then measuring her, and Austeyr getting steadier on his feet.

"You gotta tell us about a second step later, but for the first… We’ll need some," Austeyr gestured vaguely. "Worked out proof to show the rest of them."

"Like a medical encyclopedia?" Toast asked. He frowned, so she continued, "it's a book that will have a clear explanation about lead and why it's bad for you."

He visibly rallied at this concrete progress, eager to shove his confusion aside, go back to an issue he could handle. "Yes, that would help, if there was a wordburger saying it."

Toast found herself pointing at books for the men to take off the shelves, until they both had a little stack. Finally she put the bundle about water addition on top of Austeyr's pile.

"Will you be okay reading this?" Toast asked. Austeyr shrugged uneasily, maybe a little embarrassed.  

"Learned from car manuals. Handwritten is harder, especially…" he looked at the spiky script of the Organic Mechanic. "But Furiosa will help, and Miss Gale."

"I will too, if you want," she offered before she could give it too much thought. This was important, what was happening here— warboys looking for proof to present to each other. Warboys willing to discover things that would not show Joe in a good light, and being faced with irrevocable truths. She wanted to support it.

Austeyr's eyebrows shot up in surprise, which only made her nod more firmly.

 

* * *

 

"How is she?" Gale asked.

"Boys are trying to cheer her up," Ace said, frowning a little. He didn't think it was what Furiosa needed right now, but he struggled to explain why. He and the Vuvalini healer were sitting up on the terraces on an unofficial lookout, scanning the wastes.

He’d been trying to talk to the women occasionally about Furiosa because they’d seemed the most sensible and unsurprised by the whole thing. Like they’ve seen something of that sort before, and seen people come out of it.

In Ace’s experience the only time he’d seen people in this kind of mood was in nightfevers on the Organic Mechanic’s ledges, when boys realised they were going to die soft. No war boy had seemed to be able to come out of that funk. He'd hoped it might be different for full-lives, and the way the Vuvalini seemed to respond to Furiosa, that might actually be true.

They weren't acting like they thought she might die, and that helped him be calm about it.

There was bit of a commotion on one of the terraces below and he glanced over, but the sounds didn’t seem to escalate.

"Yeah, better get them off that track," Miss Gale sighed. “Think Furiosa’s been suppressing feeling a lot of things, just to get by. Won’t ever really heal unless she’s allowed time to feel ‘em all.”

"I wish she'd feel better, but—" Ace looked at his hands, feeling powerless and frustrated with it. "Know it's not something I can fix."

They both watched as Miss Giddy came into view, shoving past some bushes, storming towards to door heading below, Feng following after, shouting something about ‘regulations’ and ‘restrictions’.

"Well done, that man," Miss Gale said. "People ain't engines. Sometimes they just need time to fix themselves up."

“Any advice on getting the boys sidetracked? They want to help, change things.”

They watched as the History Woman came to an abrupt halt and Feng nearly crashed into her.

Giddy whipped around and poked a story-tattooed hand in the middle of Feng’s chest, driving her backwards saying something low and intently.

Ace watched with interest. He'd only ever seen warboys fight. This wasn't as bloody, but it looked surprisingly vehement. His rations were on Miss Giddy. The Soundless were terrifying but Miss Giddy looked like she was not afraid at all, and he'd heard the stories about how she'd survived the canyon and got warboys to do her bidding. She looked fragile, but apparently it was like a fine blade looked fragile; better not catch it at the wrong angle.

“ ‘Course the ‘boys want to help, nice that they do, they should stick around with their offers to help, but they won’t be able to _do_ any good. Not themselves directly.” Miss Gale chuckled.

The History Woman’s hand spread out and gently pushed Feng away, going through the doorway leading away from the terraces, uninterrupted by Feng. The Soundless stared after her.

“You can tell ‘em that, iffn you want, that she’s only gonna get better when she's ready. She's got a lot of stuff to chew through first, and nobody should try to hurry that. Be there for her, makes sure she eats and drinks, and let her get up when she's ready, don't make a big deal of it.”

Feng suddenly threw something into the ground, sharp, hooked, and then jumped over the lip of the terrace. Before Ace could even get a clear look at the hook, it’d somehow followed after the woman.

He’d give a lot to study that up close. “What’d you think all that was about?” Ace nodded towards where the women had been arguing.

"Could be anything. They don't agree on much."

"Seem to enjoy disagreeing though."

“And _loudly_.” Miss Gale laughed.

Ace eyebrow rose, he wasn’t sure whether to read into it, not having known the other woman long enough to read the tilt in her smile.

“Anyway, all you boys of Furi’s are a sight to see, tryin’ so hard.” The Vuvalini patted his hand fondly, "I'm glad we have you lads. Such a thing as she’s in is hard to come out of without support."

Ace didn't know what to do with that. “ ‘Furi’s’? “

“Aren’t all of you still Furiosa’s, even if in different crews or taking a trip out for a breather?” Miss Gale gestured in the direction that the Wastelander drove off in.

When she put it like that, he supposed he was still Furiosa's, at that. No longer her Ace - and he might feel strange about that if she hadn't given him her own sigil plate, as big a vote of confidence as anyone could possibly have given him. No longer her Ace or on her crew, but still in her confidence, still welcome in her bed, still _hers_.  Even in these moments when she was low, she seemed to prefer when he found the moments after meals to sit next to her. At night she’d curl up against him and made pleased little sounds about warms, instead of that awful time when she was all stilted and he’d found himself sitting across the room.

“Guess there’s that.” Ace shrugged, letting the words settle around him like a new pair of pants. Might fit better after wearing them in a little more, the word weren’t _wrong,_ really, just. New.

 _Furiosa’s,_ he thought, and maybe it wasn’t so new a thought as all that.

 

* * *

 

Toast had maybe spent a bit of time imagining what it was like inside Furiosa's quarters. Done a bit of whispering about it with the others. It was so hard to imagine that Furiosa might freely chose to have this many men sleep in her quarters that it was a source of fascination for the sisters. It was not as if they had any other examples of women desiring the company of men.

Toast would never have imagined that it could be so… _domestic_. Furiosa was sitting on a ledge, huddled in a blanket. Kompass had taken the space next to her, and they were working their way through his stack of books together, marking pages with little bits of string from the ragged ends of that same blanket. Austeyr had picked a spot near the base of the ledge, and Toast had settled nearby, close enough to pass papers between them. He was currently slowly reading through the entry for lead in the encyclopedia she'd given them.

The youngest warboy - the one she'd given her cloth to when he'd helped them get trousers - was on Austeyr's other side, and he was fiddling with an engineering project. He'd glanced away as soon as she'd looked at him, and she wondered if he was ashamed of the things he'd said that day. He seemed kind of oblivious to the mood in the room however, occasionally making cheerful comments about some adjustment he was making while the four of them read through papers with slowly mounting horror.

" _'Warpups are showing sudden drop in skills and coordination,_ " Furiosa quoted. " _suspect current rate of lead exposure is too early and reverting development.’ Recommended only giving the water to the barracked warboys to ensure we'll be getting some useful years out of them."_

They were all silent, letting that sink in.

" ‘ _At the rate of a ration a day, progression of their lead levels and corresponding health should be as intended by Joe._ ’ " Toast added from what she read off the notes she’d been working on.

There was a sudden sharp clank as Rachet dropped what he was working on, and raised his head to look at them, clenching his hands. “He called himself our ‘father’, he said he _loved_ us. That he was protecting us.” He looked away again as if it was all too much, “Festy _schlanger!_ ”

Toast’s blinked in surprise, not even realizing Rachet’d been listening in because he hadn’t even been looking at them all the while and hadn’t seemed to be making any relevant comments. But when she glanced at the others, they’d only nodded at his outburst as if he’d simply been continuing their conversation. Austeyr bumped his knee into the younger war boy’s.

Rachet kind of shook his head and returned to his project, shoulders even more tense than before and fingers shaking. _How long had Rachet’s shoulders been tense?_ Toast wondered, having disregarded the war boy for his appearing not to pay attention. Austeyr had set down his papers long ago, but now Toast noticed that the finger he was using to trace the words was shaking as well.

Kompass’ papers were being crushed. He suddenly set them down and started trying to smooth them.

"They thought their time was up," he said, low and soft, almost as if to himself. “Crewmates, they thought—”

“My aim.” Austeyr interrupted, “It’s pretty messed. I was expecting to go chrome that last run of ours, had it gone..." he hesitated, glanced at Furiosa. "regular.”

“ _What_.” Kompass burst out, looking at the other war boy in alarm. Rachet’s head darted up again and Furiosa grimaced.

“I mean, crew was thin afterwards so I decided maybe I could help out some but… Didn’t think I’d have another full hundred day being able to ride with crew.”

“Because of your tumors?” Toast guessed, seeing their earlier conversation from an additional angle.

“Yeah, didn't think I'd be much use, anyway. And the night fevers.”

“But you haven’t been getting them, have you? The nightfevers?” Rachet piped up.

“...no?”

Furiosa shook herself from whatever dark thoughts she'd been having, and nodded absently. “Don’t think I remember anyone shaking awake.”

Toast can’t remember the woman sleeping at all in her presence, even when healthy, and when wounded seemed to start awake in short intervals unless she’d been doing especially poorly.

“When we were clearing out the Citadel of Lance’s men,” Kompass demanded, looking at Austeyr, “You’d always tried taking point. You offered yourself to the Soundless in bargain if that wastelander didn’t come back. Are you _still_ thinking—”

Furiosa sat up, spine gone rigid. “Aus offered himself _first_? The Soundless didn’t demand it?”

“No, he—!”

“Stop!” Austeyr cut off Kompass, “I knew Max would come back, like any of us would come back.”

“And during the siege?!” The broader war boy seemed puffed up, agitated, and Toast was starting to see the distress now, past the bluster. She wondered if this was new to them, worrying about another warboy's death instead of celebrating it.

“It’s not like we could afford the Boss going without more of her command staff so I took point.”

“ ‘The Boss’ “ Furiosa stated quietly, “cannot afford to go without any of you.”

She kept Austeyr's eyes for a long moment, and Toast saw something settle in the warboy, before he cast his eyes down.

Rachet prodded Austey'rs side, poking at the lumps. “Too bad we can’t just cut these things out.”  

Toast started, then leaned forward, “Remember when you asked me what the second step is?”

“Huh?”

“With poison.”

“What does—”

“You find the poison first,” Toast said, “And then next you have to remove it. Draw it out.”

“Cut it away?” Rachet continued for her, poking at the lumps again. Austeyr squirmed. “Might not have liked him, but Organic Mechanic was smart. You’d’ve thought if the he’d had the ability he would have…”

All the war boys in the room froze and looked at the papers scattered around them, the proof of how little care Joe’d given for continuing the lives of those who did war for him.

Furiosa looked angry and thoughtful. “...we should talk to Gale and Feng.”

 

* * *

 

Toast watched Furiosa as she’d went back to flipping through the papers only to press her hand to her forehead, furrowed, and then set the journal aside.

Rachet looked up as she slid from her window ledge to sit next to him, just watching as he fiddled with whatever it is he was working on. The other two had left to talk to the healers, but the last war boy was still injured and apparently on bed rest, even if he couldn’t seem to stop moving. The war boy kept up a stream of idle chatter, occasionally asking for Furiosa’s opinion or advice, and she would sometimes point out some part he could improve. Mostly however, now there was nothing in front of her to work on, the woman looked drained of whatever energy she’d had. Maybe they were doing her a disservice, handling everything in the Citadel so that she could rest?

Toast found herself at a loss for what to say. But they didn’t seem to expect anything from her, and Rachet would occasionally look up and give her a relieved smile as if glad she was there. So she continued reading through the notes, and dropping nuts and washers stolen from Rachet’s scrap box to mark particularly damning sections.

There was a knock on the door that had Rachet yelling, “Come in!”

She’d almost expected to see the war boys again, but it was Capable; her sister glancing at her somewhat surprised but mostly pleased.

“I’ve come to change your bandages again, is this a good time?”

“It’s fine!” Rachet said cheerfully, and set aside his project, then paused and looked at Toast, “Unless…?”

“It’s fine,” Toast echoed, “Just doing some research.” She raised the journal she was currently working on and Capable raised an eyebrow, crouching down next to Rachet and setting aside clean bandages.

“Furiosa?” Capable queried, but the woman just shrugged.

“Fine.”

“Alright,” she said, and turned to the war boy, concern on her forehead. The way that she’d unwrapped his bandages and matter-of-factly cleaned and re-wrapped it said it was an action that she’d done many times, and Toast felt a little ashamed.

“I didn’t realize you were coming here to take care of him.”

“Gale’s sometimes busy with tempering Feng’s bedside manner,” Capable said, not looking up. “Or helping with the Wretched, there’s a lot that’s ailing them that we could help with. And not enough hands ready or willing to learn healing.”

“Gale could still have come up, while you learned with Feng,” Toast pointed out, still feeling thrown from how she’d lost track of Capable. Toast had been busy trying to sort out logistics and inventory, the amounts and frequency of rations and supplies, with Janey and the other Vuvalini; and when she’d had a moment, organizing the books and working on her self defense. She’d thought she’d kept up enough with each sister from their conversations during the Council and as they settled down to bed but she was clearly missing some things.

“Why couldn’t it have been me, taking care of Furiosa’s boys?” Capable asked, suddenly looking up at her. “Why are you so insistent it be Gale?”

Toast thought she was the only one feeling kind of newly at ease with them. But then, Capable had folded Nux under her wing quickly even while they were running from Joe. It should be no surprise that she had no issue getting close to Furiosa's warboys. Except these ones had said such horrible things… “Not insistent, just surprised that you are.” In the infirmary there were the other women, and the Soundless whom the war boys seemed leery of, but Capable seemed to be coming up here alone, and had no assurance that Furiosa would be around.

“I think healing’s important,” Capable said stubbornly, jaw hard as she looked back down to work.

“Important enough to not come up in our conversations?” Toast asked. It was like her sister had been keeping it secret.

“I thought it a kindness. With how,” Capable looked up at Furiosa and Rachet warily, both who’d been watching quietly, “With how conversations are still strained.”

“About war boys?” Toast guessed, “You mean how some of us,”  _Dag_ it went unsaid, and some of the women from the court like Polaris, and... and _herself_ if she were honest, “are still frightened of them?”

She saw Rachet open his mouth, and then stop himself, biting his lips.

Furiosa sighed, and offered, “I could have Ace talk to the war boys some more?”

“Maybe only certain ones, the ones who are listening don’t need that,” Capable shook her head, “And I don’t think that’ll get rid of the women’s fear.”

“What can,” Rachet tried, “Is there anything I can do?” He looked distressed.

Capable shrugged and finished tying off his bandages. "Too much has happened from too many war boys for one person do to much at all to stop the women’s fear completely. You can’t just tell them to stop feeling what they’re feeling. But you've already changed your tune, haven't you? You’re listening now.”

“Yeah,” he said quietly.

Capable smiled at him. “That helps. Just keep being kind.” She turned to Toast. “Council’s tomorrow morning, we should get an early rest.”

“Yes, there’s things,” Toast gathered up some of the journals around her carefully, minding her bookmarks, “That should be brought up with everyone.” And she would like take the chance to walk with Capable back to their rooms, catch up a little and catch her up on the news.

"I'll send Kompass and Austeyr to the council tomorrow. And I think that they have plans for how to explain it to the others in the barracks," Furiosa said.

Toast agreed, "They’d mentioned gathering ‘proof’ for the others. We should probably prepare for a bit of upheaval though, right?"

“War boy discussions get…" Furiosa searched for a word. "Lively."

Toast nodded and they both got up to leave. She thought she had some idea, given how Kompass and Austeyr and Rachet reacted.

(Eventually she’ll look back on this thought and laugh, because she had _no idea_.)

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to know about lead toxicity (though we are obviously taking some liberties)
> 
>  
> 
> [Joe isn't the first to poison his own people, sadly](http://www.npr.org/2015/06/22/415194765/u-s-troops-tested-by-race-in-secret-world-war-ii-chemical-experiments)


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